Save Hiawatha Golf Course

The Minneapolis Park Board voted last month to shut down operations of its South Minneapolis Hiawatha Golf Course at the end of the 2019 season.
Hiawatha is the course closest to my home.  While I am loathe to see courses close this one in particular has several things going for it:

• Location to the urban population

• A great first tee program serving that urban population

• It serves 5 schools as their local course

• A rich history nationally with African American golf.

• It is actually making money

The reasons behind the planned closure are many but ultimately boil down to groundwater. Specifically the pumping of water off the course.  This course was built on land originally called Mud Lake.  It was dredged in the 1931 and the course was opened in 1934.
Years of what could be argued as mismanagement or neglect of this watershed have led to rising waters from silt inflow into Lake Hiawatha.  Rising waters means problems for local houses and their basements.

The golf course pumps water into Lake Hiawatha to keep its fairways dry. That is the crux of the issue. Too much water is being pumped into the lake by the course. It has been pumping more water into Lake Hiawatha than allowed by its DNR permit. In fact, it has been pumping over 250 million gallons of water a year. The DNR is recommending that pumping be reduced to 90 million gallons a year, which they say is enough to keep nearby homes dry.  There are alternatives to reducing the water levels though.  Those alternatives start to hit political roadblocks though.  See this article from the local South Minneapolis paper, Southside Pride for some insight into this controversial subject. The park board wants to shut off that pumping and close the course.  They say they want to convert the course to some kind of park space - but without the pumping I think the land would revert back to its origins of a shallow Mud Lake.  There is no actual plan for what the land would become, only that it no longer be a golf course.

A grass roots movement has sprung up to save the course.  Between now and the scheduled closure date a local election will occur.  It may be a change to the park board members could change the fate of Hiawatha golf course.
You can visit the site here:

savehiawatha18.com